


The Wizards in the Observatory Tower

by yunmin



Category: Bones (TV), Criminal Minds
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Ensemble Cast, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-08
Updated: 2015-04-08
Packaged: 2018-03-21 21:21:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3705159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yunmin/pseuds/yunmin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Zack is picked as part of an exchange to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he isn't very happy about it. But he's not counting on Spencer Reid, the fifth year Ravenclaw, who has the potential to make this entire mess worth every second.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Wizards in the Observatory Tower

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt on tumblr (you can find the original post [here](http://drinkupthesunrise.tumblr.com/post/115054970811/hogwarts-au-with-spencer-and-zach-pretty-please)) and I got a little carried away with the entire concept. (mostly slytherin!hotch. I'm in this pretty much for slytherin!hotch. oh, and the jj/emily thing which would be nice to expand on if i had the time). I don't know a grand amount about wider hp!mythos or house sorting, so if you disagree with any of my choices or think I've made any mistakes, feel free, I hardly imagine these are perfect choices. I also apologise for the various people who got left out and didn't get mentioned in this (mostly Morgan and Garcia, who seem to have vanished...) - it's tough fitting everyone in.

Zack has been against the idea of an exchange ever since it was first proposed. Why on earth he has been picked as part of a contingent of young Witches and Wizards sent to Hogwarts is beyond him - he has no social skills to speak of, is hardly going to leave a good impression. The headmistresses words about sending their best and brightest hardly quell his fears.

He’s friendly enough with the others that go. Jack Hodgins - the closest thing to a friend he has. Two girls named Temperance and Angela who are as thick as thieves despite their very different interests. And Seeley Booth, who is probably only along so that the Salem Institute can prove its prowess at Quidditch. The five of them are shipped off to Britain under the care of Professor Saroyan, who looks just as irritated as Zack to have drawn a place on the exchange.

The welcoming of new students is not too dissimilar to what they are used to to freak them out, so much as there is a large enchanted hall full of students and teachers that occupy a big dais at the top.

The enchanted talking hat? That’s a bit of a surprise. Especially when it appears that each of the first year students goes up, has it placed on their heads and then a name of what, the Salem students gather, is one of the four Hogwarts Houses.

“It seems archaic,” Temperance says, as they watch the first years march past. It’s becoming clear that the school prefers the pupils sorted into Gryffindor, is ambivalent on the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, and downright disdainful to those sorted into Slytherin. One of the first years bursts into tears when she hears her house assignation, and has to be comforted by a tall, stern looking boy with dark hair on the Slytherin table. “Splitting children up by arbitrary characteristics when they are only eleven.”

“Oh I agree sweetie,” Angela says next to her. “I’m all for free spiritedness. This is just wrong.”

Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come. For once the first years have been sorted, the five of them (and Professor Saroyan) are beckoned up, and made to stand in front of the whole school.

“We have five transfer students joining us from the Salem Institute this year. With them comes Professor Saroyan, who will be working with a select group of sixth and seventh years about medical sorcery.” The Hogwarts headmaster is a tall man with a giant beard, and is nothing like the trim dark woman Salem calls a headmistress. “We have decided that each of our new students should be sorted. I hope that, whichever house they end up in, you will welcome them just as warmly as you do the first years.”

Each of the five looks at each other, terrified. Zack, by virtue of surname, is up first, and Professor Saroyan has to shove him forward. The hat is plonked on his head, and a voice speaks and Zack isn’t paying much attention but then the hat says something and Professor Sayoran is pushing him in the direction of a table.

The Slytherin table.

The entire school is looking at him quietly in shock and wonder.

The dark haired boy Zack had observed earlier greets him, sits him down whilst the sorting continues. “I don’t know how much you know about our House system,” the boy says. “But I promise this isn’t the death sentence it might seem.” He speaks those words with the tone of one who has had to echo them many times that night. “I’m Aaron Hotchner. Most people call me Hotch.”

Zack just nods as he observes the rest of his group being sorted. Booth ends up in Gryffindor, met with a giant cheer. As does Temperance. Jack is off to Ravenclaw with a grin, and Angela, the last of them, is sorted in Hufflepuff.

And then the Headmasters says “Let the feast begin,” and Zack tucks in to food, already starting to wonder how on earth he’s going to survive the year.

.

Hotch is right; Slytherin isn’t actually a death sentence. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel like one at times.

The way all the other students look at them in the corridors is enough to make even Zack, who hates the thought of any of them actually initiating conversation with him, feel ostracised. Temperance, for all her earlier complaints about the stupidity of house sorting, has embraced her new role as a Gryffindor, as has Booth. Hotch explains that, while none of the other houses are too fond of them, Gryffindor’s disdain goes beyond most.

Hotch - senior Slytherin prefect, who should have been Head Boy according to anyone who knows anything, until someone stepped in and said they couldn’t have a Slytherin as head boy - is a godsend. Zack isn’t quite sure how he keeps up. He’s taking extra NEWTs to prove himself to the Office of Magical Law Enforcement, playing big brother to most of the first years, and is the treasured confidant of most of the older students. Dave Rossi, Hotch’s right hand man, is good but lacks the genuine touch that Hotch has. The other seventh year prefect is Emily Prentiss, who is beloved for all the opposite reasons to Hotch - she’s sharp and fierce and deadly.

(Zack learns, quite by accident, that it’s mostly a front and disguises the soft spot she has for the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, a girl named JJ who, by all accounts, upholds her own house track record by diving into ridiculously dangerous events without thinking and comes out mostly unscathed.)

The one person in Zack’s own year he takes a liking too is Elle Greenaway, possibly the only person who hates Hogwarts as much as he does. She’s just as solitary a creature as he is, and his friendship with her allows him to always have a desk buddy and a partner for class whenever a teacher asks.

The fifth year Slytherins only seem to share one class with the Ravenclaws - Charms. Here, Zack takes a seat beside Jack, using the time to catch up and contrast just how different Hogwarts is to Salem. Luckily, Elle doesn’t seem to mind, because she has a Ravenclaw friend too, so isn’t fussed when he breaks their mutual agreement.

And that is how Zack Addy meets Spencer Reid.

.

Spencer Reid is the reason Zack was picked to go on this whole exchange, he’s pretty sure. He’s never met anyone so brilliant, so wonderful, never met anyone who he can say something to and just have them get it, where the silences don’t feel awkward.

Suffice to say, Elle gets sick of hearing about it in about five minutes. “He’s my friend, I know how great he is,” she says at one point. “I don’t need to be reminded how good he is.”

She’s wistful about it, in a way that makes Zack want to ask. But whatever has happened to Elle to make her this way, no one is telling. Hotch is locked up tight on the matter too, going so far to look guilty when Zack asks about it. He is, though, full of information about Spencer.

“You’re right that he’s brilliant. Smartest person in the school, though I think you and Temperance could give him a run for his money. Keeps to himself - his best friend is Alex Blake, the chief Ravenclaw prefect. He’s pretty close to JJ, as well,” Hotch says. “You’d look good together, I reckon. Both of you should smile more.”

Hotch’s words take Zack to JJ, who laughs good naturedly at him - especially given that he’s petrified of being seen talking to a Gryffindor. “It’s not you-” she wheezes. “Well, it is you. Kinda. It’s about time Spence finally got someone who’s realised how great he is.” Zack mutters about Elle under his breath. “Elle’s complicated. Anyway.” JJ proceeds to tell Zack about the truly awful date Spence took her on in second year to a Quidditch match, which Zack takes as a cautionary tale on what not to do. “He’s fond of the observatory. Or the restricted section of the Library. You’re smart, I’m sure you’ll work out some way of getting there.”

Zack has never doubted his sorting to Slytherin more that he can’t figure out how to get into places that are most definitely off limits to the average student. This sort of thing doesn’t come easy to him. He cherishes every moment spent with Spencer, but hasn’t got any closer to telling him that his stomach flutters every time they talk, that all he wants to do is reach across and touch and hold and he wants, oh so much.

It’s Emily who comes to his rescue, having been told about the whole disaster by JJ and Hotch and probably everyone, really, at this point, because it must be everyone who knows. She points out, very sensibly, that Professor Saroyan will quite happily sign any permission slip for the restricted section of the Library, because she’s that kind of teacher, whilst Alex Blake holds a copy of the Observatory Tower keys for reasons no one is quite sure of.

So Zack scuttles off to Alex, who, when he explains the reasons for wanting the keys to the Observatory Tower, is perfectly willing to become his partner in crime. After all, she says, it’s about time someone loved Spencer.

.

Jack is the accomplice to the last part of Zack’s plan, in being the one responsible for sending Spencer up to the Astronomy Tower where Zack waits.

“Zack?” Spencer calls, finding the door unlocked and pretty mystified as to what is going on - everyone has been giving him knowing looks all day and that hasn’t helped.

“In here,” Zack replies. Spencer rounds a corner and finds Zack sitting there.

“What on earth is going on?” Spencer asks, but it’s good natured and he slips easily into the seat behind Zack.

“The stars are different in Salem,” Zack explains - which is true, kind of, but it’s a subtle difference. “I thought you could show me how they looked here.”

Spencer clearly thinks this is a little odd, but goes along with it anyway. Explains what Zack’s seeing through the telescope, smiles as their heads brush together as they both look at their solitary star chart. Later, staring out the window of the tower, abandoning the telescope, Spencer takes Zack’s hand to better point out the various constellations.

It brings them close together - Zack can feel the warmth of Spencer’s breath on his neck, the just of his chin again Zack’s shoulder. And here is surely the moment where Zack tells Spencer just what all of this is really about.

But he doesn’t.

Their time comes to an end - they’re to be back in their dorms by midnight, else no amount of conspiring between the prefects will keep them safe. At the bottom of the astronomy tower they have to say their goodbyes, for their dormitories are in separate directions.

“I had fun tonight,” Spencer says, ducking his head slightly to look at Zack.

Zack fights a blush that comes up as he replies “I’m glad.”

He has to say something now; else he’ll never hear the end of it. But his mouth is clammed shut and he can’t even think of the words to force out of it even is he could speak.

Looking at Spencer, there’s something in his eyes. And he’s close - too close for them to just be speaking, and he’s closer every moment. And then there’s a soft brush of lips against Zack’s and that’s it - the spell that seemed to be rendering Zack frozen was broken, and there are hands in Spencer’s shirt and he’s being pushed backwards into the wall and this, this is perfect.

Zack means to question it, once he’s got his breath back, his thoughts in order, but once again, Spencer gets there first. “Elle told me,” he says. “You didn’t really think this was going to say a secret?”

Zack shrugs. Spencer kisses him again - and he’ll endure months of teasing from Elle, from everyone, if it means this. They are broken up by the clock chiming and Spencer curses, running off in the direction of Ravenclaw tower. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he promises, and Zack knows that it’s all alright.

He too, dashes in the direction of the Slytherin dorms, where he will be reamed out by Hotch for being late, but sent to bed with a smile and some kind words.

And the next day Spencer ignores his usual seat at the Ravenclaw table at the grand hall, and plants himself down between Zack and Elle, with a smile and a kiss to Zack’s cheek. Jack follows him, tugging Angela along - and she’s waving to Temperance and Booth, who are uncertain about uprooting themselves until they see JJ bounce up and position herself next to Emily.

Maybe Hogwarts isn’t so bad after all.


End file.
